Finding Lost Treasure
by ZuzuStormieSmogge
Summary: Two girls. One in Wisconsin. One in Texas. Two girls that didn't know each other existed, but are much closer together than anyone could believe. On a trip to Greece they will discover that they were meant to meet long before that, and that they would have to stay together no matter what happens. (A story by vat1 & desaewwlirharleyquinnmadcatter)
1. A Gift Like No Other

A Gift Like No Other

July 13, 2018

(Evie's pov)

My feet pounded against the ground as I ran on the treadmill. Music was playing from my iPod, as sweat rolled down my face. It wasn't the best place I had ever been to for a workout, but it worked well enough for my needs. The old place I used to work out at had closed down, which disappointed me. It has been a relatively cheap place, but with semi-good equipment. I normally liked to run in the park near my house, but it was late and my mother would not be happy if I was running outside alone. Too many creepers outside she would say.

Not that I made it a habit to run in the middle of the night, but if I had a bad dream I liked to run to take away my problems. Instead of a bad dream tonight, though, I just had a feeling. Not necessarily a bad feeling, but something I wasn't quite sure of yet. It's probably imaginative; I seem to do that a lot.

When I was little, I had a friend that looked just like me. It was like staring into the mirror. Well that was exactly what I was doing; looking in the mirror. For a while, though, I had believed that she was real. One day she just seemed to disappear. I brushed it off thinking she would come back, but to no luck. I asked my mother about it a few years later. She just laughed nervously (probably because she thought I was crazy) and said that was my imaginary friend when I was little; her name was Tanya. I had a feeling like Tanya was more than an imaginary friend though, I suppose that all little kids think that about their imaginary friends though.

After running for about an hour, I got off the treadmill and started getting my things together. It was mid-July so the temperature outside wasn't too bad, but since it had been raining earlier it was very humid. I started walking along the canal that led to Sabine Lake. I lived in a small town called Sabine Pass, Texas. It's about 35 miles from Beaumont Texas, and right next to the border of Louisiana. My house was right on Sabine Lake. It was a light green two-story house with dark brown shutters. The first level we had a living room, the kitchen, and a bathroom. The second story had my room, my mother's room, and a bathroom. Since our house was on a hill, our basement also served as the backdoor to the backyard. We didn't have much in the basement; it was mostly just a hangout room.

I arrived at my house after about twenty minutes of jogging. Once I unlocked the door, I immediately went upstairs to my room and took a shower to wash all the grime off from my work out. Hoping that I would actually fall asleep this time, I got into bed. Like I always do after a workout when my head hit the pillow I was instantly asleep. Probably dreaming about knights, fairies, mermaids, or some other imaginary creature.

* * *

July 14, 2018

"Evie, it's time to wake up!" I heard my mom say from beside my bed.

My mother, unlike me, is a morning person. She wakes up at the crack of dawn each morning and, I might add, without an alarm clock. Over the years I've finally convinced her to at least give me an extra hour of sleep before she starts yelling in my ear in the morning. I had to start new chores for that hour of sleep, but it was worth it. An extra second can go a long way.

"Can't I sleep longerrr.." Doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to negotiate even more sleep. "I was up late."

"I guess you could." I sigh in relief. "But I guess I'll just have to eat those strawberry pancakes all by myself." I cracked an eye open and looked at her. Just like I thought, there were no strawberry pancakes in sight.

"They'll sure be good since I was keeping them warm in the oven." She said as she was leaving my room.

Sleep or food

Sleep or pancakes

Sleep or STRAWBERRY pancakes

"If I die of sleep-deprivation I'm blaming my mother," I grumble as I got out of bed. It was worth it though. Strawberry pancakes were always worth it. I probably had an unhealthy obsession with them….scratch that, I did have an unhealthy obsession with them.

When I got downstairs, I saw a pile of strawberry pancakes topped with more strawberries and whipped cream at my place at the table. I quickly made my way over to the table, sat down, and started eating.

"What are your plans today?" My mother asked me.

"I'm going to the beach with Ruth after I get all my chores done," I say in between bites of the heavenly pancakes. "Brian and Ty will probably be there a little after lunch since they don't get off till 12:00."

"Fun." My mother says. "Listen I'll be working later than usual today so I probably won't be getting back till around 8:30. Will you be good till then?"

"Mom, I'll be an adult in less than 3 weeks. I think I'll be good." I say to her while rolling my eyes. "I'm not a baby anymore."

"I know but I'm still going to worry."

"Don't worry mom," I say. "We live in a small town. Everyone knows everyone in this town. It's not like we have fire-breathing dragons or mermaids that are going to put spells on us."

I laugh a little when I get up and start the dishes. I was so distracted on my task that I never heard my mother say, "you have no idea."

* * *

(A few hours later)

After I got done with my chores I got dressed in my bathing suit and a sundress over it. I grabbed my beach bag, phone, sunscreen, a beach towel, and a few snacks to share with Ruth and eventually Brian and Ty when they got off work.

It wasn't a long walk to the beach, nevertheless, I started putting on my sunscreen since I burn easily. That was the one thing with being a redhead; it was cool and all to be a redhead since only about 1-2% of the population had natural red hair, but the downfall was that I sunburn very easily. I've already bought a lot of aloe vera this summer and I don't really want to buy more.

Once I made to it to the beach, I looked around for Ruth's chocolate brown hair and her purple beach towel. After a short scan of the beach, I saw her laying on her blanket closer to the water. Instead of calling out to her like I would normally do, I crept up to her slowly so that she wouldn't hear me.

"BOO!" I screamed in her ear.

She jumped up off her beach towel and swung around ready to do some kind of advanced martial arts move. Which I guess she did, because a second later I wasn't looking at her, I was looking at the clouds.

"Why'd you come up behind me when you know I'd do that?" She asked as she came into view.

"Um…..so maybe I didn't think my plan completely through," I said. Ruth chuckled a little while helping me sit up. "'Groaaan' that hurts.'

"What does?" Ruth asks me.

"My back."

"Here let me take a look," she says.

Since I was in a bathing suit and we were on the beach, it was pretty easy to see my back. I really hope that I didn't break anything. Which is highly unlikely but still, it's not like I have money just flowing in.

"Looks like it's going to bruise," Ruth said after a moment. "Sorry Evie. At least I hope you learned your lesson about sneaking up on me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it," I said with a pout. This was going to ruin my workouts; not completely, but it was definitely going to make it more difficult.

I got out my beach blanket and the snacks that I brought. Once everything was set up I laid down on the blanket next to Ruth. With the hot sun on my back and my semi-full stomach, I soon fell asleep dreaming about a mermaid and the one place I've always wanted to go….Greece.

* * *

I looked around at a place I've never been to before; although I have seen in pictures. It looked to be an island called Gyaros; my mother talked about it a lot, it's an island in Greece that my mother used to spend a lot of time at. She met my father in Athens, but she doesn't talk about him much. I do have a few pictures of him though.

When I looked around, everything seemed hazy; kind of like what happens in a dream…. wait dream? How did I get here? All of a sudden I hear a splash in the water and I look into the water. I see my mother swim up to shore, but when she gets closer I see that she doesn't look like herself. Her legs...her legs kind of looks like a tail of a mermaids. But how can that be? Now I definitely know I'm dreaming.

She swims up to shore and pulls herself out of the water. I can see her tail from where I'm standing, It's a shimmery jade green tail. She has on a soft black coral bikini top. She eventually pulled herself completely out of the water. I watched her lay there for a while, she looked so peaceful and happy. Don't get me wrong I've seen my mother peaceful and happy, but not quite this way. She seemed at ease with the world.

Suddenly, after a while of standing there watching her, something almost magical happens. Her body started to change, not painfully like you would think, but beautifully. It looked like her body was morphing into water bubbles. After a second or two of staying like that, she changed into her normal self...like I've always seen her. Red hair, green eyes, 5'1" (just two inches shorter than me), with her favorite jade green necklace.

From the beach, I could see her turn and look at me. Her eyes met mine, and I could see her lips moving, but I couldn't understand what she was saying since I was so far away from her.

* * *

My eyes flew open, and I wildly looked around me. After a few seconds, my eyes landed on my friend Ty….who was holding a bucket of water looking at me. It was at that moment that I realized that I was soaked from head to toe with water.

"Ty….I'm gonna kill you," I said glaring at him.

I think he got the message because he took no time in wasting running away from me. Practically flying off the blanket, I was off chasing after him. As I was running I could see people looking at us with either annoyance or a smile, and the sound of Brian and Ruth laughing behind me. When he finally started to slow down I managed to tackle him, and we called a truce. I was hot and sweaty, but it was worth it. I'd soon be swimming in the water anyway right?

* * *

(Later that day)

"...Oh come on! You have to think that was somewhat funny right?" Asked Ty as we walked towards my house.

"No Ty. Having cold water dumped on me while I'm sleeping is not fun," I said glaring at him.

"I don't know Evie that was pretty funny," I heard Brian say from behind me, Ruth soon after started giggling.

"Well, I now know where your allegiance lies Ruth."

Before she could come up with a defense, we arrived at my house. My mother, who was holding groceries, was standing at the front door looking over at us.

"Brian, Ty would you get the rest of the groceries from the car."

"Sure Ms. Sartre."

"Of course Ms. Sartre."

The boys handed Ruth and I there beach bags and headed over to the car to grab the groceries. While they were bringing the groceries in, Ruth and I set the beach bags by the front hall and made our way to the kitchen to put the food away.

"So what should we do tonight?" I asked Ruth while I put some cheese in the fridge.

"We could watch a movie. We haven't done that in a while."

"Evie! Honey, will you come into the living room for a second?" I heard my mom call the living room.

"Sure Mom let me just put the rest of the groceries away!" I called back.

I finished putting away the sandwich meat, bread, peanut butter, and other food items into their respective areas. Looking over at Ruth, I noticed that she was done with putting away her half of the groceries away. I turned away and made my over to the living room. When I walked in I noticed that all the lights were off...which was weird considering that my mom just called me to come into the living room.

"Mom?" I called and then turned on the lights.

"SURPRISE!" Ty, Brian, Mom, and Ruth yelled. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Ummm that's great and all...but my birthday is like two and a half weeks away."

"We know, but you're not going to be here for your birthday so we wanted to celebrate it early." Said Ruth.

"What do you mean I'm not going to be here? Of course I'll be here."

"I'm not so sure about that." Ty sing-songed from the other side of the room.

"Honey, where have you always wanted to go?" my mom asked me.

"Greece?" I responded

I looked around the room and finally understood.

"I'M GOING TO GREECE!?"


	2. The Last Shift

The Last Shift

July 13, 2018

(Tanya's pov)

I quickly grabbed a drink of water from the rusty bubbler next to the office. Beads of sweat were falling down my face and I used a greasy rag to rub it off. Yes, I work in a mechanic shop, I've been working here since I was 15 years old. My dad owns the mechanic shop, and he only started paying me once I worked there. I never got an allowance for anything else.

This is important because I'd been wanting to save up to go to Greece for a long time. The mythology had always fascinated me and I'd always wanted to see the historical sights.

"Tan!" I heard my dad call my name. Nobody else called me Tan but my dad. I hated it, Tanya is such a pretty name and I liked the full sound of it.

"Yeah, dad?"

"Have you finished working on Mr. Powers's Mustang yet?"

"Yeah dad, I just changed the oil and everything's all set."

"Okay great, wanna meet with him and give him the rundown? Then you'll be all done working here 'till after we get back from Greece."

"Yay! I'm so excited! I can't believe you making me pay for all of this myself, though!"

"Tan, I have to teach you the meaning of hard work. You know that's a father's job."

"Yeah, dad, I get it."

I walked over to the front desk and gave Mr. Powers his keys and his full auto repair report. I couldn't wait to take off my heavy jumpsuit and jump into the lake. My dad and I lived on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Lake Michigan wasn't too far away. I loved going to the beach after a long day's work and taking a break. Something about the water was soothing.

I quickly took my jumpsuit off, don't worry I had clothes on underneath, and grabbed the keys to my Jeep Wrangler off the rack.

My dad said that my mom and him used to drive the Jeep everywhere, and it's one of the only things I have to remember her by, and it's just an awesome car, so I take really good care of it. If by taking really good care of it you mean offroading everywhere and then letting the mud stay on for a while.

I really don't know much about my mom or even really want happened to her, my dad has told me many different stories and I'm not sure if any of them are true. All I know is my mom hasn't been in my life since I was a baby, and it's never really been a big deal for me.

I arrived at the beach and saw a bunch of sailboats on the water. It was a nice breezy day and the sun had just begun to touch the horizon. I took off my shirt and shorts, and yes I was wearing a swimsuit underneath. I always wore one in the summer because I knew that I was going to go to the lake.

I jumped into the water and felt the sand beneath my feet, it felt good and I just rested in the water for a while before swimming to a sandbar further out.

As I swam closer to the sandbar I realized that somebody else was on it. Then he turned around and I realized it was one of my best friends Dakota.

"Hey Kota!" I yelled.

"Oh, hey, Tanya! You scared me! You done with work?"

"Yeah! My last shift before I got to Greece! I'm so excited!"

"Ugh, I can't believe you chose Greece over Italy! Italy is so much cooler!"

"Pffft, NO it's not. The Romans copied everything from the Greeks and it's stupid. I'd much rather go to Greece, obviously."

"Heh, whatever. Whatever trips your trigger I guess."

"You sound like an old man saying that."

"I guess. I have to go back home though, I was about to leave just as you came."

"Okay, I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah! Send me pictures from Greece, okay?"

"I will! See ya, Kota!"

I watched him swim away as I took my waterproof backpack off of my back. I always brought my waterproof backpack swimming because I liked to swim on sandbars and lie on them with my towel and eat some snacks.

I took out my towel and laid it on the sand, and then took out my sparkling lemonade and cheese cubes and started eating them as I watched the sun go down. I slowly started to fall asleep as the last bits of sunlight touching the clouds.

* * *

I saw my feet lying on a sunny beach next to a pure blue ocean. I see something moving in the distance and hear a loud splash. It almost looks like… a mermaid? No, that can't be. All I could see was a red-haired woman pulling herself to shore and it looked like she had a tail.

Suddenly her appearance changed. It looked like she turned into water bubbles, and slowly her body raised above the shore and she looked like a normal human.

I saw her turn to look at something and I realized it was a younger girl, and she looked a lot like me.

* * *

I woke abruptly to the feeling of my body being moved by the water. The water had slowly raised over the sandbar and I quickly grabbed my bottle of lemonade and towel and put them into my backpack. I decided to swim back to shore and go home.

I finally got to the road my house is on, and it was a brick road so it was quite bumpy. The house my dad and I lived in wasn't anything to special. It was an old brick house, built sometime in the early 1900s. It had a cute dark wood front door and two stories. All the floors were wood except for the kitchen and the bathrooms which were black and white tile. The floors were all creaky but I loved the sounds and the smells of the old wood and bricks.

I walked up onto the porch and opened the door to my dad standing in the kitchen.

"Hey, Tan. How was the lake."

"It was nice, I saw Dakota there."

"Oh really? Tell him there's still an opening for someone to work at the shop."

"Yeah, dad, I know. I already told him. He said he'd think about it. I also had a really weird dream."

"Oh yeah? What was it about?"

"Well, I dreamed there was this… mermaid. And then she turned to look at someone that looked almost exactly like me. It was really weird. I never had a dream like that before. I usually just dream I have superpowers."

Dad's face got extremely red as I told him my dream and he stopped looking at me and turned to brown the beef he was making.

"Dad, what's wrong? You look like you just saw pigs fly."

"Haha, nothing honey. I just got worried that the beef might burn. Y'know, for our tacos?"

"We're having tacos? Yes! That's my favorite."

"I know, hun. It's mine, too!"

Dad quickly finished browning the meat and we took the hard shell tacos out of the oven and sat down in front of the TV to watch "The Office".

I got tired quickly and realized it was almost midnight. Dad usually stayed up late than me to work on his paperwork and everything, at least that's what I assumed. I never really asked. I got up and gave him a hug, put my dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on, and went up the stairs to my bedroom.

My cat Midnight was on the bed and as soon as he saw me he came running. I put some food in his bowl and let him eat it as I got my pajamas on. I said my prayers and then picked Midnight up and we went to bed.

* * *

July 14, 2018

I awoke to "Bad Company" playing on my phone. That was the ringtone for my best friend Astrid.

I looked at the clock and saw it was 11:00 AM. I never was an early riser, but neither was my dad, so it wasn't a big deal.

I quickly picked up my phone and answered,

"Hey, Astrid."

"Hey, Tanya! Wanna go for a hike really quick? I'm bored and I wanna spend time with you before you go to Greece."

"Yeah, of course! You know I'm always up for a hike!"

"Okay, wanna meet at noon?"

I said my goodbyes and put the phone down. Midnight was rubbing at my legs and I put some more food in his bowl. I smelled the wonderful smell of bacon and rushed down the stairs to see my dad piling some blueberry pancakes onto his plate.

"Hey, sweetheart! I just made some pancakes and bacon for us, obviously. I have to go to work so you just eat the rest alright? I'll see you later."

I ran up and gave him a hug as he walked out the door, and then went back to the table to get myself breakfast.

I quickly gobbled down the last pancakes and bacon and gulped down a glass of orange juice. I went back up to my room and turned on my laptop and started playing some music as I got dressed. Then I decided I wanted to take a shower, so I did.

I then realized it was almost 12:00 so I quickly put on my hiking outfit and got into my Jeep and drove to Astrid and I's usual hiking spot.

Astrid and I loved to hike and we usually alternated bringing food for picnics and this time it was her turn. We hiked to our favorite spot, which was a little cove-like place down by the mouth of a stream and a freshwater spring. We made sandwiches and talked about Greece. I noticed Astrid became more and more disinterested and she kept looking at the bottom of the picnic basket.

"Hey, Ash? What's up? Why do you keep looking at the bottom of the picnic basket?"

"Oh, no reason." She said as she giggled a little bit.

"What? What are you laughing at."

"Nothing, I just got you a little something for your birthday before you get too stressed out about planning everything for Greece."

"Really? That's so sweet!"

"It's not much, really." She said as she took a medium sized blue wrapped box out with a darker blue ribbon around it."

I opened it and quickly realized it was an old Polaroid camera. As well as a necklace with a picture of the goddess Artemis on it. I smiled and looked at Astrid.

"Oh, Ash, you know me so well! Thank you so much! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures for you in Greece."

"Absolutely, Tanya! It wasn't a big deal anyway, that's my mom's old polaroid, she hasn't really used it much and she says it's still in perfect condition."

I took a few sample pictures and selfies of Astrid and me, and then we started to walk back. I couldn't wait for Greece and I couldn't wait to use the polaroid 'til it ran out of film.


	3. A Dream Come True

A Dream Come True

July 27, 2018

(Evie's pov)

A can't believe it, I'm on a plane that's going to Greece. The place I've wanted to go to my whole life. My mother used to live in Greece years ago, and she talks about it so much. I haven't had an opportunity to go till now, but now finally I do. It's a long flight though, a very long flight. I've been on the plane for six and a half hours already.

There are people snoring behind me, people crunching on chips in front of me, and my headphones are in my luggage below the plane. I brought my pillow though which was nice, but with all the noises around me, there wasn't a chance I was going to sleep. Not being able to move was also a problem. Whenever I wanted or needed to move I could just go to the gym since it was so close, and I definitely took full advantage of it. Now since I haven't moved much in my chair in the last six hours, my legs were cramping up. Just as I was about to get up to use the restroom just for something to do and to move my legs, the seat belt light came on.

"Please put return to your seats and buckle your seatbelts, we're about to go through some turbulence." I heard the pilot say over the loudspeaker.

"Just great," I mumbled to myself.

A few seconds later I could feel the airplane start to shake. Some children further back in the plane started to cry, most likely from the shaking. There was a lady across the aisle that looked nervous and she called the plane attendant over and started asking questions.

I would be glad when we got off this plane….

Another seven hours, one bathroom break, and more snoring later, I was FINALLY off the plane. I was actually really excited to get on the plane from the start since I've never been on one (except when I was a baby, but I don't remember that), but after experiencing it I didn't know why I was so excited, I never want to get on a plane again. I looked over at my Mom and it looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep either.

We went through the airport and picked up our bags from the bag terminal. It wasn't a long wait for our bags, but I still made use of the time while our bags came to stretch my legs. They were really stiff and cramped from the flight. Once we got to where we were staying I was going to take a run to stretch my legs, take a shower, and then go to bed.

"Here's our last piece of luggage, Evie." My mom said from beside me. I went and grabbed the suitcase from the terminal and placed it next to my other bag. "So where to? What hotel should I be looking up?"

"Oh, we're not going to a hotel, Evie! We're staying at my old house."

"Old house? The one you lived in while you were here? I thought you would have sold that when you moved to America."

"No, I love that house too much to sell it. I've been renting the house out to other people so that it wouldn't cost anything to keep it. The last people that lived there just moved to there new house so it's empty right now."

"Wouldn't you have to be here to keep it up? What if it needed repairs?"

"I have a friend that's been helping me out with that so that I didn't have to worry about that."

"How is it that I've been living in the same house as you for how many years and I never knew about this?"

"Honey there's still a lot you don't know about me, and that's partially what this trip is about." My mother said as we made our way out of the airport. "Anyway it's about a forty-five-minute drive to the house, it's late, and we need a driver so we can talk about this later."

The next two hours consisted of driving to the house (that was like three minutes away from the ocean, not to mention a bigger house than the one we have at home!), unpacking a few things so that I could find my running gear, taking a shower, and then finally hitting the hay.

July 28, 2018

2:47 PM, Athens Time

'Groannn'

I turned over in my bed and looked at the clock, 2:47PM. Surprised, I sat up in bed. My mother never lets me sleep in that long. I looked around my room and realized that I wasn't in my room. Well, I guess technically this was my room since my Mom owned the house. Anyway, it wasn't my house in Texas. I smiled to myself when I realized that I was in Greece. My dream come true.

I got out of my bed and got ready for the day. When I was done, I looked around my room. It had dark purple walls and light grey carpeting. The bed posts and dresser were dark brown wood, and my sheets and curtains were silvery-grey with purple shells all over them. I also had a desk over on the far side of the room the same color as the dresser and bed. There was a huge mirror on one side of the room, and when you slid it to the side there was a closet on the other side. I loved the room. It almost felt like it was made for me.

I finished unpacking all my clothing and toiletries and then made my way downstairs. Not seeing my mother in the kitchen I started to search the house. I hadn't gotten a very good look of the house when I first came in last night because it was late and I wanted to take a quick run and then go to bed, but now I had the chance.

It looked to be a two-story house with most, if not all, the bedrooms on the second floor. There was also two bathrooms and a staircase (that led to the attic) on the second floor. The kitchen, living room, porch, bathroom, sitting room, and a mini library on the first floor.

I went into the mini library and looked around. There were mostly old books that I was assuming my mother put there years ago on the shelf, but there were a few newer looking books that I'm sure the renters had left and put on the shelf. The books were mostly about different places to visit in Greece, but there were also books about shells, corals, fishes, you name it. There was also a book about mermaids that I was about to pull out of the shelf when I heard my mother call.

"Evie? Where are you?"

"In the book room Mom!"

I turned around to walk back into the kitchen where I heard my mother's voice come from. When I turned the corner and looked into the kitchen, I saw my mom leaning heavily on the island.

"Are you okay mom?" I asked as a walked up to her.

"Yeah, yeah I think so." She said although I wasn't convinced. "I'm probably just tired from the flight. I never do well on flights."

"Why not you go back to bed and lay down."

"But we were going to go out today."

"We don't have to Mom we have like what two weeks here? We have time, besides I'm a little tired, too. Maybe we should just stay here for the day. Besides I want to look around the house."

"Okay if you're sure."

After my mother went back upstairs to rest, I went back downstairs to the living room. There were different shells hanging on the walls and a few old family albums on the shelf in the living room. There was a rocking chair by the window that had a semi-good few of the ocean. Having an idea, I ran upstairs to my room, I grabbed my laptop, phone, earplugs, and a blanket that I found that morning in my closet. I made my way back downstairs to the living room. Taking my phone out, I took a picture of the view and put it on my story on snapchat. I took a few more pictures of the ocean, my room, and other places around the house and sent them to the group chat with Brian, Ty, and Ruth.

After I was done, I turned my phone off and looked around. Deciding that I didn't have much else to do at the moment, I went into the book room and looked over some books that I could read. Finally deciding on one about different seaweeds used for healing, I went back to the living room, put some music on, and started reading.

August 1, 2018

10:30 AM, Athens Time

For the last few days, I've only left a few times while my Mom has stayed cooped up in the house. She's had a temperature and it just broke last night. It was probably just the flu, but I was a little worried because she never gets the flu...like ever. I usually get it once or twice a year; I think I've only really seen her have it three times in my life.

Anyway, she was resting in her bed upstairs which was good. She's been bugging me the last few days to go out instead of taking care of her, and now that she's actually feeling better now I was taking that chance. I was taking a ferry out to an island called Ermoupolis. Normally I would have stayed inland because of my mom, but today I felt like going out to the ocean. I don't why, but it was like it was calling me. Weird right? That wasn't the only thing though, I was also hearing voices in my head. Kind of like someone else's thoughts were in my head.

'The ocean looks really calm today.'

There it goes again. The voice sounded like mine only...it just….wasn't. I don't really know how to explain it. Almost like someone stole my voice and grew up in another culture. Okay now I know I'm going crazy.

Anyway, I made my over to one of the smaller harbors in Athens. I had walked by there a couple days earlier and seen some other American tourists go there. There weren't many though which was good. I liked going in smaller groups to things..it makes everything easier. One thing about smaller groups is that the tours don't go as long which I needed today. I was going out with my mother to her favorite restaurant.

I made it to the harbor, found my Ferrie, bought a ticket, and boarded. Soon everyone else was on board and we were on our way. It was a three and a half hour boat ride to Ermoupolis. So I found one of the seats and sat down. It felt nice to be on a boat instead of a plane. Not only could I stand up and move around whenever I wanted, but it felt better. I didn't get all dizzy and queasy. About two hours into the trip, I felt my legs starting to ache.

'Maybe I'll stretch my legs for a little bit' I thought.

I got up from my seat and made my way up to the main deck. The forward (front) part of the boat was crowded so I instead went to the port quarter (back left) of the boat where there weren't as many people. I could see the island Giaros from where I was. I didn't know much about it except it was close to abandoned.

'I'm so excited to be traveling on my own for the first time!'

Hearing other voices in my head was really starting to get annoying. I just wanted to enjoy this trip without thinking I'm going crazy. At least watching the ocean was nice, less of a headache. Every once in a while a few water droplets would land on my skin, and the boat would rock back and forth. The sun was getting hot on my back and I was starting to get a headache from all the different thoughts whirling around in my head, so I decided to go back below deck. I turned around to come face to face with myself….well not myself? Someone that looked a lot like me? Either way, I was so surprised that I took a step and just then the boat started to rock which made me lean my lower back against the rail of the boat. The boat rocked the other way harshly, luckily I caught my balance, but when the boat rocked back this way again my back landed against the rail harshly (my bruises that I had gotten a couple weeks previous roaring in pain) I was so focused on my back that I lost my balance and fell out of the boat.

"HANG ON!" My look-a-like said.

The girl that looked like me tried to grab me from inside the boat, but after the boat rocked she fell in also.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH." We screamed as we fell into the water with a splash.

Once I was under the water, I opened my eyes and looked around to try to find the other girl. I soon spotted her, she looked like she was a strong enough swimmer so I made my way to the surface, and took a deep breath. Soon after my look-a-like joined me. We both turned to the ferry and started yelling and waving our arms when we could, but with the wind and the high waves that had previously rocked the boat, they couldn't see or hear us.

'There to far away now.' I thought. I turned around and looked at the island of Giaros. 'Maybe we should start swimming to Giaros.'

I was just about to mention it my look-a-like, when I noticed that she, too, was looking at the island. We looked at each and I could tell we had the same idea, so we started to swim to Giaros. After about thirty minutes of swimming to Giaros, I felt a tap on my leg. I stopped swimming and turned around.

"Break?" my look-a-like asked. I nodded. After a moment of awkward silence, I decided to make conversation.

"I'm Evie," I said.

"Tanya." My look-a-like said.

"Tanya?" I asked. "That's a pretty name."

"Thanks!" She said.

We sat-or I guess swam in this case- there for a few minutes.

"We should probably get going." I said." It's moments like these that I wish I was a mermaid."

"I kind of wish I was a mermaid right now too." She said giving me a small smile.

I didn't have time to think about that though because the water below us started to bubble and I could feel my legs changing against my will. I looked down at the water….

"It's….I'm…" I looked over at Tanya and I could see she was in the same predicament. "We're…" we said at the same time."...Mermaids!"


	4. I Finally Made It!

I Finally Made It!

July 22, 2018

8:00 PM Wisconsin time

I was getting really hot and my arms were getting sore. I was pulling my luggage and some of my dad's for the last 10 minutes. Of course my dad had to choose to park in the parking lot the farthest away from our gate.

"Dad!" I said. "Why are you making me carry your stuff, too? You're a grown man, you can carry your own!"

"Hon, you've gotten lazy since you haven't worked in a while. You need to keep your strength up."

"That is the stupidest excuse for being lazy I have ever heard. Can you walk faster at least? You're not really carrying anything so I don't know why you're so slow."

Our flight leaves at 8:30 pm tonight so I had to make sure we got here early enough so we wouldn't be late. I'd been waiting for this trip for a long time and I didn't want anything to go wrong.

Luckily we got to our gate a couple minutes later and went through security without a hitch. Then dad and I just sat around by our flight gate waiting till they called our section to board. Finally, after what seemed like hours they called group 3 and we got on. I got a window seat, which I was happy about. I'd been on planes before but I still enjoyed plane rides and I loved the feeling of being able to fly. This flight was supposed to take 16 hours, with two stops on the way, which is why I packed a bunch of snacks and charged my phone all the way and brought my best headphones.

The flight seemed to go by quickly and soon enough we were just boarding the last plane before Greece. I don't know how pilots can fly all day and not crash planes all the time, they have to be exhausted. I know I was.

Fortunately, the last plane ride was the most eventful. The other two rides had been boring and there had been no turbulence. Yes, I like turbulence, it's part of why I like flying so much, turbulence is like riding on a super dangerous roller coaster and I love it.

This last flight had some turbulence about halfway through and we passed through a bit of a storm. The landing was also a bit rough, which was awesome. But the best part was that I had finally landed in Greece. The place I had been wanting to go to forever.

* * *

July 23, 2018

10:00 pm Athens time

I couldn't believe it, I was actually in Greece. Greece! But I was also really tired and I just wanted to get to bed, as excited as I was, I knew I had like 3 weeks here, so I had some time.

I had decided that I wanted to rent an airbnb because I didn't want to just stay in a hotel. The place I found wasn't expensive at all and was honestly really cute. We finally got there about an hour later because our driver kept getting lost because I didn't really speak any Greek, and dad fell asleep so he wasn't much help, even though he actually spoke more Greek than I did. I had been trying to learn Greek for a while, but it was just hard for me to have time to learn it, so I only knew a couple of phrases. Finally, we got to the right place after about an hour of looking around.

Then I realized I had the wrong address for some reason. I remembered that I was looking at a different place that the renters had just left, and we could've rented it, but then I heard that the actual owner was coming to stay there. For some reason, I still had that address in my phone, but I found the new address that we needed. It took us about another 30 minutes to get there since our driver kept getting confused again, but we finally made it to the right place.

The house was cute from the outside, it was white and small with a flat top and a bunch of vines growing on it. It looked old, and the door was a nice light wood with some cracks in it. There wasn't too much space in the house, just a tiny kitchen, a little dining room, a pretty large living room, and a bright sunroom. On the second floor were two bedrooms and a bathroom. There really wasn't much to the house, but we didn't really need much.

Dad and I were both starving so we decided to try to find someplace to eat. We walked around Athens for awhile and finally decided on a cute little restaurant/deli kind of thing by the beach. We both got gyros, and let me tell you, they were SO good. So much better than anything I'd had for gyros in America.

Dad and I decided to walk along the beach for a bit but it was getting chilly out and we were both tired so we decided to walk back to our house. Luckily, I'm pretty good with directions so I remembered where we had to go and we didn't get lost this time.

We finally got back home and decided to just watch an episode of "The Office" before we went to bed. 12:00 am is usually late for me to get to bed by, and now I was even more tired because of everything we did today. I finally made it up to my room and absolutely crashed.

* * *

July 24, 2018

11:30 am, Athens time

Haha, I just checked the clock after I woke up. 11:30, dad let me sleep in. Actually, I doubt dad's even awake. Usually I'm okay with sleeping in late, but I wanted to do a lot today. It was my first whole day in Greece, after all!

"Dad, dad! Wake up! If you don't wake up I'm going to go see the Parthenon all by myself!"

"Alright, Tan, I get it, I'll get up. Let's get some breakfast first. Let me look and see what they have here for eating."

Luckily, they actually had some flower and stuff so that dad could make pancakes and they actually tasted pretty good. I scarfed them down quickly because I wanted to go see the Parthenon.

Over the next few days, dad and I went to all the major touristy places and saw all that we really wanted to see in regards to mythological stuff like the Shrine of Delphi, etc. I couldn't believe that these things were thousands of years old, but also that people could be so disrespectful as to actually vandalize them. Yes, people did graffiti all over the Parthenon and stuff, and it was truly sad to see that. But just looking at the amazing works the Greeks did so long ago really kind of made you forget about it.

I also went to this place called Meteora, which is a monastery on this tiny solitary cliff, and people still work and live there sometimes. You have to walk across a long and rickety bridge to get there, which was terrifying, but as you know, I like to be scared by things like that so it was pretty enjoyable for me. Not so much for my dad, though, he threw up after we got to the other side both times. That was pretty amazing as well, just looking at how this huge building was on this tiny cliff.

Dad and I enjoyed doing all of that together and we found many different really good restaurants to eat at in Athens and the other towns we went to, but I was getting sick of spending time with him. I decided that I wanted to really go see the ocean for some reason, and I looked up ferry tours online and found one that could take you to a place called Ermoupolis which seemed interesting.

* * *

August 1, 2018

I walked down to the harbor where the tickets were being sold and found the ferry to Ermoupolis, the group looked small which I liked, I didn't like to look like a tourist if I didn't have to. I got onto the ferry and chose a spot on deck where I could just stand and look out onto the ocean. I thought the ocean looked really calm today.

Suddenly, a thought popped into my head that wasn't mine, ' _Maybe I'll stretch my legs for a little bit.'_

It could've been mine, the voice sounded like mine, but I had no need to stretch my legs, I was already standing up and moving around a bit anyway. That threw me off for a second, but I didn't care. I was too excited to be traveling on my own around Greece for the first time. I decided to go below deck, closer to the water. I stood there for a while without a hitch, and I thought I saw myself walking towards me, but that wasn't right. I looked away and looked back at the ocean, which had seemed to get a bit choppy. It looked like the current was changing.

Quickly the boat began to rock and I felt myself being tossed about, I saw the girl that looked like me being thrown across the railing and I tried to grab her and help her stay on, but that just made both of us get thrown off, and we both screamed as we fell.

I got thrown under the water for a second, and it took me a while to get back up, but I reached the surface. I realized the girl that looked like me was okay as well, and we both turned to the ferry and started waving and frantically screaming to get their attention, but the waves and wind were too loud and strong for them to hear or see us.

I noticed an island off in the distance and turned to tell the girl that looked like me we should swim there, but it seemed like she already had that idea in mind. We swam for quite-a-ways before I finally asked her if she wanted to have a break.

I didn't exactly know what to say after that and there was an awkward silence, just as I was about to start a conversation she did.

"I'm Evie," she said. "But everyone usually calls me Evie."

"Tanya."

"Tanya?" She asked, confused for some reason. "That's a pretty name."

"Thanks," I said, and that seemed to be the end of our conversation for a while.

We swam in place again, kind of just in another awkward silence, but I was just thinking about why this girl looked pretty much exactly like me when she started to talk again.

"We should probably get going. It's moments like these that I wish I was a mermaid."

"I kind of wish I was a mermaid right now too," I said, honestly being a mermaid right now WOULD be pretty awesome. I'd dreamt about being a mermaid before, and always been kind of fascinated with them.

Right as I stopped thinking about my fascination with mermaids, I felt something happening to my legs. The water around me started bubbling and I looked at Evie, and it seemed the same thing was happening to her.

"We're…" we said at the same time."...Mermaids!"


	5. The Start of a New Adventure

The Start of a New Adventure

August 1, 2018

1:34 PM, Athens Time

(Evie's POV)

"We're…" we said at the same time."...Mermaids!"

I looked down at my tail. It was dark purple kind of like mardi gras purple. The scales were about an inch long, but as you looked further down the tail they got smaller. Not to mention that it looked like my tail was longer than when my legs were there. It was then that I noticed that my top had changed as well. I was now wearing a shimmery silver shell bikini top. My hair that was in braids had magically unbraided themselves and my hair was now down.

Looking over at Tanya I noticed that she had a turquoise blue tail. Her scales also were an inch at the top and when you looked further down the scales got smaller. She had on a green seaweed top.

We looked at each other surprised looks on our faces. Tanya pointed to the surface and I nodded. We both swam up to the surface.

"That was...wow," Tanya said.

"Wow is right," I said. "Has this ever happened to you?"

"No, never. You."

"No, I've always wanted something like this to happen, but I didn't think it would come true," I said. "Not to mention on my eighteenth birthday."

"Wait! Your turning eighteen today?" Asked Tanya.

"That's just what I said."

"No it's just...I'm turning eighteen today too."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah." Replied Tanya. "So did you wish for a twin sister too or…."

"Uh sorry, no...although I did have an imaginary friend that looked just like me when I was little."

"Hmmm, well anyway maybe we should figure out if this is permanent or not because my dad isn't going to be to thrilled if I come back with scales."

"Haha true." I said." How about we still try to swim to Giaros?"

"Sure."

We dove under the water and after a minute of trying to swim with our tails, we were off. It was an amazing feeling to swim under the water while breathing. It was a little painful at first, but once my lungs got accustomed to it, it felt like I had been breathing water all my life.

It was amazing to see the sea creatures without having goggles on. Normally when I'm looking under the water my eyes are blurry, but I guess since I changed into a mermaid having better eyesight under the water was a perk.

After about ten minutes, I looked ahead at Tanya. I thought about the thoughts that I was hearing in my head the last twelve-ish hours. We looked a lot alike, could that have been her voice in my head? I decided to try it out. If she did hear me, great we figured out something new, if not then I won't look like a fool talking to someone else in my head.

' _Tanya? Can you hear me? It's Evie.'_

I looked ahead of me at Tanya. I saw her freeze in front of me. Unable to stop myself in time, I crashed into her.

' _Ow…'_

' _What! You mean it was you who I kept hearing today.'_ Tanya said as she turned around.

' _I guess so. I was thinking about it when we were swimming, about the voices I was hearing in my head, that kind of sounded like my voice. I figured since we looked so much alike that it might have been you.'_ I said. ' _So I tried to talk to you in my head.'_

' _Well at least I know I'm not going crazy now. I was getting really freaked out about hearing voices in my head that weren't my own.'_

' _Yeah me too.'_

By that time we had made it to Giaros. We swam around the island looking for a place that we could climb up. After a little bit, we found a place. It was a little rocky, but it would work.

We swam up to shore and using all our strength we managed to pull ourselves out of the water.

"I guess going to the gym all the time has its perks. My tail weighs a lot more than my legs." I said.

"Yeah, I work at a mechanic shop so that helps out a lot." Said Tanya.

' _Not to mention all our suitcases at the airport.'_ I heard her grumble in my head.

"You do realize that I can hear your thoughts now right?"

Tanya looked up at me with a 'duh' kind of face and then she realized what I meant.

"Oops." She said sheepishly.

"Yeah I know I'm going to have to get used to this too."

"Anyway." Said Tanya. "How are we going to change back?"

"Well, before we said something like we wished to be mermaids…."

"Maybe if we say we wish to be humans again."

We looked at each other and having no other ideas we tried.

"I wish to be human." We said.

"Anddddd…..nothing." Said Tanya. "Now what?"

"Ummm…. Maybe we have to be more convincing?"

We tried again and this time, we both changed back to our normal selves. Our normal wet selves. I got up off the rock and stretched my legs.

"It feels good to have my legs back," I said.

"Yeah, kind of miss the tail though."

"Me too."

"Well now that we know how to change back, we should probably get back to Athens...hopefully we can change back."

"Yeah, maybe we should have done this closer to Athens...Oh well, live and learn."

We both jumped back into the water and tried to transform back. This time, however, instead of saying it out loud we tried it underwater, thinking it. It worked. We were off back to Greece.

* * *

3:26 PM Athens Time

' _It's weird.'_ I thought

' _What's weird?'_ Asked Tanya from in front of me.

' _Having my legs stuck together, everything that I think you can hear, breathing underwater. It's all just so...so strange. I've always wanted to be a mermaid, but imagining it and being it is completely different.'_ I replied.

' _I know what you mean. I've always been fascinated by mermaids too. There probably my favorite mythological creature.'_

We were silent after that for a while. Occasionally we would stop and watch some fish that we thought were cool, or to catch our breaths, but for the most part we kept going. We were probably another thirty minutes from land when we spotted something deep below us.

' _It looks like a ship.'_ Thought Tanya.

' _Wanna explore?'_ I asked her.

' _May as well. Besides we might find something cool.'_

We slowly swam down to the boat, side by side. It looked like an older boat, like a REALLY old boat. Tanya looked over at me and motioned to an opening in the boat.

' _Let's try to go through there'_

I let her take the lead as we made it to the hole. Tanya went through first. It was a tight fit, but we both made it through. I looked around the room, and noticed that it seemed to be the sleeping quarters. There were a couple chest that were empty (though that probably held clothes at one point) and hooks that would have held hammocks at one point.

' _Next room?'_ I asked Tanya.

' _Yeah. Nothing too interesting in this room.'_

For the next little while we explored the old ship. Everything was mostly falling apart, so there wasn't anything too interesting until we made it up to the captain's quarters. I had been rummaging around the captains desk when I had found a small old wooden treasure chest.

' _Open it.'_ Said Tanya.

' _I've tried, it won't budge.'_ I said handing it to her.

She tried also, but in vain.

' _I'm going to bring it home.'_ I thought. ' _Even if I can't open it it still is pretty cool.'_

' _Speaking of home, we should probably get going.'_

After taking one more glance around the room, we were off. A little while later we spotted Athens. We were about twenty miles from land when I stopped Tanya.

' _We're going to have to find a deserted beach or something, we don't want anyone seeing us.'_

It took a little while, but we found a beach that was in between both our homes. We transformed when we got to shore. We were both soaking wet, but happy we had gotten back to land. I placed my treasure chest in my messenger bag so that I wouldn't have to carry it around.

"Do you have a phone number I can have," asked Tanya. "I know that we only just met, but I think it would be useful if we had each others number."

"Yeah, here's my phone," I said while handing her my phone from my bag.

Once she was done putting her contact info into the contact, she gave me her phone and I repeated the process.

"We should definitely talk sometime soon," I said. "Anyway I should get going otherwise my Mom will start to worry. We're supposed to be going to her favorite restaurant tonight for my birthday dinner."

"Yeah me too. I think my Dad is supposed to be taking me out tonight too."

* * *

6:07 PM Athens Time

"Mom! I'm home."

From further into the house I heard my mother drop something heavily onto a desk or counter and come running down the stairs. Once I saw her I noticed she had been worried.

"Evie!" She said, while giving me a big hug. "I was worried."

"Sorry Mom. I took a ferry out to see one of the islands and I guess it took longer than I thought."

"I'm just glad your back safe." My Mom said while releasing me from the hug. "Why don't you take a shower and change and then will head out to dinner. You can tell me about your day."


	6. Strangers Meet

"Strangers" Meet

(Tanya's POV)

I ran back to our cottage as fast as I could because I knew my dad would be worried, and probably angry as well. I turned the corner to our cottage and saw my dad sitting on the front steps with a nice outfit on, he looked bored, but not worried. I ran up to him and he just said, "Tanya Elena Nieckhout! Where have you been? I was worried sick about you!" Just as he finished saying that, he started laughing.

"Just kidding," he said, "I knew you were fine. You can always find your way back around, anyways we weren't even supposed to leave for dinner yet, so you're back a little early. Why don't you go ahead and change into something nice and then we can leave?"

"Ok, that sounds like a good idea, Dad. Thanks for not being too worried about me, though I guess I am a little worried now that you weren't too worried about me."

I ran up to my room grabbed a nice beach dress that was blue and flowing, and had a pretty floral design on it. I put on some comfortable gladiator style sandals and put my hair in a half-ponytail. Then I quickly ran back down the stairs so we could go.

"You look beautiful, Tan! Are you ready to go now?"

"Yup, and I'm starving, too!"

We walked for a while to the restaurant and finally made it there. The place was cute, right by the ocean and it had lots of those string lights surrounding it, making it seem warm and cozy.

It was called "Εύρημα", and from the little Greek I knew, I realized it had something to do with treasure. Which was weird considering what Evie and I had found earlier.

Speaking of Evie, I had no idea what I was going to tell my dad about today. And what I was going to ask him. I kept thinking about it, and it seemed so weird that I had met someone that looked almost exactly like me and was born on the same day as me, and turned into a mermaid the same day as me couldn't be related to me. But I didn't want to think about that now I was going to spend time with my dad on my birthday, and I felt bad about being gone the whole day from him because I love spending time with my dad on my birthday.

Dad opened the door to the restaurant and I went in, the place wasn't anything too fancy, but it wasn't messy or anything either. It was cute, it had pictures of ships and mythological creatures everywhere, and some of the seats looked like they were made out of old treasure chests. The signs were in English as well as Greek on the inside (must be a big tourist spot) so I realized that we got to seat ourselves. I chose a booth where the seats looked like they were made out of old ship parts.

Then, Dad started to ask about my day. I told him that I went to the ferry and met someone, also a tourist from America. Then I told him that we both fell off the ferry because the waves were so strong, and I tried to save her. I told him that we swam to an island, then took a break and swam back to shore. He just looked at me surprised, and said, "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you to swim so far! And I'm sorry you had to spend all day swimming, and with a stranger, no less. I wish you could've had a better birthday sweetie."

"No, Dad, it was actually pretty cool, the girl I met was really nice and it seemed like we could be friends, later on, we gave each other our phone numbers. And I'm glad I'm here with you now so I can end my birthday happily."

Just as I finished saying that, I saw Evie come in. She was wearing a dress as well, though hers was purple and sparkly, and she seemed to be talking to a woman that looked a lot like her… and me. This was getting weird. I didn't know if I should call her over, or hide from her because I didn't really want to deal with it now. But it was too late, it seemed like Evie and the woman were going to sit on the opposite end of the room when Evie noticed me. She waved at me and I waved back, and she started walking over. I was about to tell my dad that was the girl I met, but when I looked at him he looked like a ghost and his eyes were fixed on the woman with Evie. I didn't think the woman had noticed him yet, but when she did she turned pale as a ghost as well, and she froze in her steps. Evie noticed that and grabbed her arm and pulled her over.

Evie said, "Mom, this is the girl that I met earlier today. Her name's Tanya and she's really cool."

And then I said, "Dad, this is Evie, we met earlier, she's the one I was telling you about."

But Dad and Evie's mom both said nothing, they just stared at each other intensely, until Evie pushed her mom into the seat next to my Dad, and Evie sat next to me.

Evie, I said in my thoughts, I think your mom and my dad know each other. They keep looking at each other intensely and they both look like they've seen ghosts. Do you think that we actually are twins?

Maybe we are! That would be so cool! Let's ask them.

Evie, n-

"Sooo, mom," Evie said, "Do you and Tanya's dad know each other?"

Evie's mom sat in silence for a few moments and said, "Actually girls can you allow this man and I a few moments with each other?"

Evie and I both nodded our heads quickly, and they left.

* * *

(Epona's POV)

I can't believe he was here. After all these years, Alistair was standing right in front of me. Across from him on the booth that looked like it was made from old ship parts, was Tanya. I hadn't seen her since she was a baby. She looked exactly like her sister Evie. My daughters were both here after so many years. But then I remembered that Alistair was there and my thoughts went to a slightly darker thought. In the distance, I heard my daughter say, "Do you and Tanya's dad know each other?"

I looked at Alistair once again thinking about what I would do. This man wouldn't do what he had done to me years ago. I wouldn't let him.

"Actually girls can you allow this man and I a few moments with each other?" I said, not taking my eyes away from him.

From my peripheral vision, I saw the girls nod their heads. I turned away and led the way out the doors of the Cafe. From the sounds of footsteps behind me, I could hear Alistair behind me.

"I think this is a safe distance away Epona." I heard Alistair say.

I turned around and looked at him. He had the same ocean blue eyes that I had fallen in love with years ago. His hair, though, had turned a light shade of grey in some places. Just looking at him, I could feel myself falling in love with him once again. With the thought of what he did in the past nagging at me again, I was able to push away any feeling I had of him.

"Why did you do it?" I asked him. "Why didn't you come to me?"

"You couldn't have expected me to come to you Epona. After something like that, I couldn't trust you." He said looking at me with a glare. "I would've taken Evie with me too, but your sister stopped that."

"I couldn't!" I yelled at him. "I can't tell you why, but I couldn't. I still can't tell you everything! I really wanted to tell you! I was going to try, I kept trying to find ways."

"Did you though?" He said looking away. "Many times before that night I had seen it in your eyes that you wanted to tell me something, but you never did."

"You're right. I was going to tell you those other nights, but I kept chickening out. I was afraid. But when Evie woke up crying saying she had a dream about you leaving me because you didn't like me anymore, you had comforted her. You told her whether I turned into a hideous monster, or forgot you or a hundred of other instances, you would still love me and stay with me." I looked at him with anger. "But that was a lie. I was going to tell you the very next night when I heard that. You lied to our daughter."

Alistair looked at me. I could see it in his eyes what he wanted to say, but I wasn't ready. I don't know if I would ever be ready, but I knew in that instance that I couldn't forgive him that easily.

"Come on. We have some explaining to do to OUR daughters."

"Epona, I jus…"

"Don't!" I yelled turning around looking at him. "I don't want to hear it."

We walked slowly back to the cafe. I didn't know what I would tell them. I was still so caught up on the fact that Alistair and Tanya were back. I had missed my little girl so much.

"What do you want to tell them?" Alistair asked from beside me.

"The truth I guess," I responded, my anger going down a little, but still there. "I suspect they may already know."

By that time we reached the cafe that Alistair and I had gone to a long time ago. We walked back to the booth that we had left the girls only twenty minutes ago. They were conversing in low voices, but when they heard our footsteps they stopped whispering.

"Hi Mom," said Evie slowly.

"Hey, Dad!" Tanya said right after.

"Girls." Alistair and I said at the same time.

We sat down on the other side of the booth that Evie and Tanya had moved to. Alistair and I looked at each other and I gave a nod for him to start.

"We want to tell you something girls." He said looking at me once again. "And it's a bit of a long story."


	7. A Story From the Past

A Story From the Past

(Epona's POV)

We met on a sunny day back on April 18th, 1998. I had been at the market picking up food to make soup for my sister Esfir when I had spotted him. He was arguing with a shop owner selling fruit. Having got everything that I needed for the soup I decided to see what the problem was.

"No...no mango. M.A.N.G.O," The man spelled out to him."….. mango. It's yellow on the inside...No, not orange, I don't want an orange, I want a mango."

He was speaking English to the man which obviously wasn't working. Before he could get even angrier I decide to intervene.

"Αυτό θέλει ο άνθρωπος είναι ένα μάνγκο." (This man wants a mango)

"Ευχαριστούμε! Αυτός πραγματικά αρχίζει να με ενοχλήσει." (Thank you! He was really starting to annoy me.)

The shop owner took out a mango from one of the crates he had below him and handed it to the man next to me.

"Εκεί μπορείτε να πάτε τώρα παρακαλώ... αφήσει τρομάζεις σας μακριά τους πελάτες!" (There you go now please leave...your scaring away the customers!)

"What did he say?" The man asked me.

"To have a lovely day," I replied to him as we started to walk away from the shop over.

"Do you know both English and Greek, then? You sound like an American."

"Yes, but I'm not American. My parents spoke English. And obviously, I live in Greece. It's - a little complicated."

"Oh okay, I'm just here for school, I don't know much Greek, so thanks for helping me. I'm heading down to the docks for a bit." He said. "Would you like to come?"

"I must head back to my sister now, but it's nice to meet you."

"Alistair by the way." I looked at him confused. "Alistair, my name is Alistair."

"Epona."

* * *

On my way home I thought about the man quite a bit. He had blond hair and these bright blue eyes. If I was going to guess his height I'd say he was about 5'11" which was a contrast to my height of 5'1". The way he looked at me though, I've never really believed in love at first sight, but I do believe Alistair might be my one true love.

In the distance, I saw the house that I had lived in for at least fifteen years of my life. I'm 29 years old right now with my birthday coming up in just a few short weeks. My sister Esfir is three years younger than me at the age of 26. We lived in one story house along the ocean. It was a small house, but we loved it. I went in through the back door and then hung up the keys. I walked into our small living room to see my sister laying on the couch. She looked slightly pale, her ocean blue eyes a contrast to her pale skin.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Better." She said looking at me with tired eyes, but I could still see the way her eyes glimmered when she told a joke.

"Lies," I said giving her a small smile. "How are you really feeling?"

"Ready for soup?"

I looked at her once again, but I gave up arguing to get the answer that I didn't want to hear out of her. Making my way to the small kitchen we had in our house, I started to pull out the ingredients that I had gotten from the market that day. Looking at the bit a fruit that I had gotten I once again started to think about the blond American that I had spoken to that day. The way his eyes matched the ocean. He had a little bit of unshaven hair along his chin. From what little bit I had observed from his personality he probably had shaven that morning but got distracted from doing the rest. I giggled a little at the thought, but then quickly stopped remembering that my sister was in the other room. She had been trying to get me to date for a long time now, but I refused to do so.

My sister was sick a lot. We didn't have the money to go to the doctor for a visit so we made due with what we had. Currently, my sister had what we believed was the flu, but I couldn't be sure. I was worried, but I tried not to let it show, wanting to stay strong for her. That's why I had gone out that day for ingredients for soup...and met Alistair.

I went through the process of making soup while trying to stop my mind from going to Alistair. It was a difficult challenge let me tell you. Pretty soon I had a vegetable soup simmering on the stove ready to be eaten. I made a bowl for my sister and brought it to her along with a piece of bread with butter on it.

"Esfir the sou...oh." I started to say.

She was on the couch asleep. I debated with myself whether to wake her or not before deciding to let her sleep. She had dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she could use the sleep. I left the soup on the table beside the couch before getting up to prepare for my job.

I worked at a small antique shop down by the main docks. The old lady that owned the store had hired me years ago when she had seen me looking in the window. That was probably about 16 or 17 years ago. Now the lady (Miss Iris is her name) was too old to take care of the shop and so I took care of the shop. Miss Iris never married or had children so she has no one to take care of her. Between taking care of her and my sister, I was never not busy.

"Good afternoon Penelope," I said when I entered the store.

"Afternoon, Epona," Penelope responded.

I hired Penelope about two years ago when taking care of everything became too much to handle. She was a hard worker and I was grateful to have her there.

"How has the shop been since I left this morning?"

"Pretty good. Not too much business today, unfortunately."

"I was thinking about a way we could fix that actually," I told her. "What do you think about making a new sign to put out front?"

"Really?! That would look great!"

"There's some wood and paint in the back," I said gesturing to the back room. "Do you want to work on it while I keep everything up here running?"

"Sure." She responded and went into the back room

The store hasn't had as much business as we would have like in the last few months. I was hoping to make things brighter and more cheerful that people may feel more inclined to come in.

I went around the front room since nobody was there, and started looking around. Some of the paint was peeling along the walls and the floor looked like it could use a nice scrub. I went into the back room and grabbed a bucket, soap and a couple of sponges. Filling the bucket up with water and putting soap in it, I began to work on scrubbing the floors clean. I've been too busy to see what's become of the shop, but no more. This place would be back to what it was before.

* * *

(Alistair's POV)

I met her on a gorgeous day in August. I will forever remember that day. I was traveling to Greece for school. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, striking red hair with the most lovely jade eyes. "Aaaah." Just thinking about her makes me smile. I wish I could see her again. But wait! There she is!

"E-Epona?" She was there, on the ground. Scrubbing the floors of a cute little shop that I had just discovered. "It's me, Alistair! You know, from the market? Mangos, remember?"

She looked up at me and laughed. "Yes, I remember you! You're studying in Greece, right? What are you studying?"

"Oh, I'm just studying the language. I'm pretty good at it, yeah?" I looked at her with a dorky smile.

She laughed again.

"Sure, for a newcomer I suppose. What are you doing at the shop?"

"Oh I was just walking around, I had time off from class today. What are you doing here?"

"I take care of the shop. I kinda need the money for my sister. She's sick and her medical costs can get expensive."

"U-um. So, do you maybe - I don't know, maybe do you want to get out of here? We don't have to go to the docks. You could show me around."

"Yeah, I guess. Let me just get finished up here. I'll give you my address and you can come get me in an hour. I have to make sure my sister is alright."

"Okay! Great, I'll see you then!"

She quickly wrote down her address on a slip of paper and gave it to me. We said our goodbyes and I walked out the door.

I had a little skip in my step walking back to my apartment. I couldn't believe she'd said yes.

* * *

I wanted to make sure I looked perfect for meeting Epona tonight. I didn't want to wear anything too fancy, like a suit, but I didn't want to be underdressed either. I finally decided on a short-sleeved blue button-down shirt and a light brown pair of Bermuda shorts. The only shoes I had were black high-top Chuck Taylor's, so I put those on.

I walked out the door and started looking around for the street she lived on. I got lost a couple of times, but I always found someone to talk to. I knew just enough basic Greek to be able to understand directions.

I finally made it to her house. It was cute, and honestly basically what I expected it to be like. I'd gathered myself and walked up to the front door. I didn't see a doorbell so I knocked a couple times. I heard some rustling inside and it sounded like Epona and her sister were arguing in Greek, but then they started giggling. I backed away from the door a bit so it didn't seem like I was listening and waited for Epona to come to the door.

She walked outside and wow, she looked beautiful. She was wearing a beautiful short, light blue dress, with a necklace with an almost glowing stone on it, and her hair was half-up half-down. She looked amazing, and I told her that. She just said thank you and laughed a little bit.

"So, where are you taking me?" I said.

"You'll see." She said, as she grabbed my arm and pulled me along.

Time went by quickly as we laughed and talked about ourselves. It was crazy how much I felt like I could open up to her. I told her all about Wisconsin, my family, my dad's mechanic shop, everything. And she told me everything about her. How she used to live in America, how her sister is sick, how she takes care of a shop for the owner, and so many other things.

I hadn't realized where we were until we got there. It was the Parthenon! I hadn't had a chance to see it yet because of school, and it was more breathtaking than I thought. The moon was full and lit up the sky, and the Parthenon was lit inside so it looked like it was from another world. And Epona, Epona - she looked dazzling. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight, and her hair looked like it was on fire. I couldn't hold back any longer, she was telling me the history of the Parthenon, but I just pulled her closer and kissed her. It was a short kiss because she pulled away and just looked at me, but it was magical. From that moment on everything was magical, and I knew she was the one for me.

A year and a couple months later I asked her to marry me. It was in the same spot that we had our first date, the moon was full, and the Parthenon was lit. I got her a very unique ring (no diamonds, she hates them) it was a silver ring shaped like vines with a sapphire stone in the middle surrounded by smaller emerald stones in the leaves of the vines. She said yes, and I couldn't have been happier.

We got married June 13th, 1999 at the Meteora Monastery in Greece. It was a lovely day, the weather was sunny and then it started raining, but we both love rain so it was perfect. It was a Christian Orthodox wedding since Epona didn't really care what religion it was and we both really wanted the wedding to be at Meteora. And it was basically happily ever after. Until other things got in the way.


End file.
